Five Albums That Changed My Life: Maxx Danziger of Set It Off

Natalie Bisignano
Although they’ve only been a band for three years, Set It Off has still managed to become one of pop-punk’s most popular and exciting acts. The Florida quintet recently issued a remastered version of their EP, ‘Horrible Kids,’ and it debuted in the top 100 Alternative Albums on iTunes. It’s the follow-up to their 2009 EP, ‘Calm Before The Storm.’ If you love hook-filled choruses and anthemic guitar riffs, Set If Off have your number. Drummer Maxx Danziger sat down for Noisecreep and listed the five albums that changed his life.

‘Enema of the State’

Blink-182 (1999)

“When I was 8-years-old, I was on my way to school when ‘What’s My Age Again?’ came on the radio. I had never heard anything like it. I was in complete awe. As soon as I got home, I stole my older sister’s Blink album and I’ve been listening to it on repeat ever since. I used to wait until my parents left to play it on full blast throughout the house. That album was the reason I wanted to play drums and the reason I’m in the music industry in the first place. To this day, Blink-182 is still my favorite band and if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t even be writing this article.”

“As a kid, I always wanted to hear the fastest, loudest, most distorted music I could find. The thought of piano-rock seemed like something I would never want to listen to. But the first time I heard ‘I Woke Up In A Car’ it was like a breath of fresh air. It still had the edge I was looking for, but with a completely new twist. I also found this album around the same time I started getting interested in girls so the lyrics were something I could really relate to. This album taught me to never judge a book by its cover and to give more bands a chance. It really opened up a new world of music to me. Plus, at the time, I thought a song about accidentally kissing a drunk girl was hilarious.”

“Back when MTV still played music, I used to watch TRL all the time. One day a music video comes on, of a skinny white guy with bleach blonde hair spitting some of the sickest and most vile rhymes I had ever heard. It literally seemed like he was bat shit crazy. I was sold. After devising a master game plan of getting my friend’s older brother to buy us ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ (They took the parental advisory sticker very seriously at the record store) I listened to that album nonstop. I had never really listened to rap before, but the hooks were catchy, the beats were sick, the rhymes were fluid, and it was angsty as hell. It showed me a whole other side of music I had never tapped into before.”

“I never fit in much growing up. I never really listened to the radio, I was socially awkward, and I wasn’t good at sports. (The closest I got to making the cut was being the water boy for my middle school soccer team.) Sometimes I felt like an outcast. But when I found ska I found an entire community of misfits that would go to dark clubs wearing ridiculous clothes and just skank the night away. ‘Keasbey Nights’ was my first taste of this crazy music. It was upbeat, danceable, and fun. Plus, I had never really listened to music with horns before. I was hooked. To this day, I have never been to a show more fun than a ska show. I found an entire counterculture due to a single album.”

“I didn’t get into heavier, screaming music until I was a teenager. I never saw the appeal until my friend showed me ‘I Am Hollywood.’ Just listening to it made me feel like a badass. It was the first time I gave heavier music a chance and I’m glad I did. It opened up doors to some of my favorite bands (Protest the Hero, Between the Buried and Me). It really showed me what metal, hardcore, and post-hardcore had to offer. If I was ever pissed off, I would just crank the volume and scream along. It was definitely an acquired taste, but once I opened my mind and my ears I found that it was one of my favorite genres (and also, the best genre to play air guitar to).”

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